Sailor Moon RPG Game Review by Sailor Star Dust

Written by Sailor Star Dust on 10/20/2005

General:

Created in 1995 by Angel for the Super Famicon (Japan's version of the SNES), Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Another Story is a role playing game (RPG) that takes place after the 3rd season of the series, Sailor Moon S. You star as Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon), who is enjoying peace with her friends after their latest battle with the Death Busters. But all is not right in the world as a new group of enemies who look like the Sailor Soldiers are hatching an evil plan to change the past, present, and future while reviving previously defeated enemies! Who are they and what are they after?

Although at first glance it seems to be based on the anime, Sailor Moon: Another Story actually a hybrid world of anime and manga events combined. SMS: AS is not a part of the anime or manga universe in a better way than I ever could. ^^; The game was translated by the online group Bishoujo Senshi Translations and is available for download in this website in the Downloads section.

Characters: (8/10)

As I said before, you initially start out as Usagi, but as the game progresses, you get to control all ten (yes, ten ^_^) Sailor Soldiers at one point or another, although some you can only control in battle (such as Pluto and Saturn). The character's personalities (for the most part, as the game makers did screw up a few things here and there) are faithful to that of the series (Usagi being head over heels in love with Mamoru, every other guy reminding Makoto of her senior ("senpai"), Haruka and Michiru being serious in battle, etc) and will certainly be an enjoyable experience for fans of the show.

Keep in mind that you can only have 5 members (including the one you're controlling, which is usually Sailormoon) in your party at once. One really cool thing about battles in this game is that you can have your party members attack together depending on their formation and such. For instance, having the first four members of the Sailor Team (Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter) in battle with Moon allows them to perform the Sailor Planet Attack from the series! Of course, you have to power-up quite a bit before you can do this.

Battles: (5/10)

This is a good example as to why the game is so linear. Even though you have several spells at your disposal (some from the manga while most are from the TV series), the enemies attack you in a very typical (read: boring) fashion. What's worse is that some characters are weak in their attacks (such as Mercury) so you really have to build up your HP (hit points) before kicking the collective butts of the bosses in each chapter.

Graphics: (7/10)

This was a game for the SNES, so it doesn't have &.8220;amazing&.8221; (Playstation Final Fantasy style) graphics. Given what system this game was for, however, I think the graphics are average.

Music and Voices: (7/10)

The music in Another Story has several variations of background music from the series, which are tweaked to sound slightly different (i.e.: such as the first tune ("Mysterious Happenings") that plays when Usagi's walking around Tokyo with Luna to find out why the townspeople are acting strange. But the majority of the music is made for the game, which is average. (&.8230;And repetitive, depending on how long you're stuck in certain areas ^^;)

What's neat is that in battles, the characters speak in their voices from the series! Let's say you want Super Sailor Moon to fight. Select her attack and before you know it, she's saying "Rainbow Moon Heart Ache!" I personally think it's a very nice touch and makes Another Story cooler than it already is.

Game Translation: (8/10)

I haven't played the game in Japanese, but I decided to include this category to explain what I personally thought of the group's translation. For the most part it seemed accurate, and since this is based on the original version of the game, the honorifics for names (i.e.: Usagi-chan, Mamoru-san, Mizuno-san, etc) are kept in tact.

A few things did irk me, however. At one point in the game, Minako (Sailor Venus) says to Haruka (Uranus) and Michiru (Neptune) that the upcoming mission will be a job for "us inner senshi" (inner senshi being a fan invented term for Sailor Soldiers Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus) when in fact she said how the mission would be "a job for us" (referring to herself and the other three girls.) I just find it to be in bad taste to us a fan term when professionally translating something.

The only other "error" I found is throughout the game, certain terms are left in Japanese instead of being translated, which isn't helpful for those people who know no Japanese whatsoever. For instance, after a dream Mamoru has early on, he looks at (What I believe) is a stone in his room and says it's glimmering while saying its Japanese name. Then, several times throughout the game, Usagi is called by her nickname "odango atama" (dumpling head). While there's nothing wrong with that in itself, Bishoujo Senshi Translations decided to leave odango as is but translated "head", which once again, seems somewhat unprofessional in my eyes. Of course, I'm just nitpicking, so you shouldn't let that stop you from enjoying this otherwise faithfully translated game. ^__^

Overall rating: 35/50

Although the game is very linear for an RPG and the ending itself (which I'm not giving away here! You'll have to play the game to find out what happens! ;-)) frankly could have been better, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Another Story is a highly recommendable RPG for Sailor Moon fans and open-minded RPG fans alike.